GAZA CITY: Hamas said Saturday a delegation will travel to Cairo on Sunday to hand its response to Egyptians mediating a Palestinian unity deal.
“Hamas has a clear and explicit position on the items of the Egyptian draft, but a delegation headed by Mousa Abu Marzouq, vice president of the Islamic movement’s political bureau, will arrive tomorrow in Cairo to deliver a final response,” Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told reporters. He however refused to say whether the movement would accept the proposal.
The response “will be taken within a framework aimed at guaranteeing the success of the Egyptian efforts” to heal the deep rift between Hamas and the Fatah movement, Barhoum said.
On Friday, Egypt said its mediators delayed to an unspecified date their deadline for Hamas to sign the unity deal at the Islamists’ request. That came a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party presented a signed copy of the deal to Egypt.
On Saturday, Abbas said he would announce the date for the Palestinian elections on Oct. 25. The embattled Palestinian president said earlier this week that if the two factions did not reach agreement he would call for elections on Jan. 24 instead of the June 28 date in the Cairo plan.
— With input from agencies
